


Dinner with Peggy and a Date with Pepper

by cosas_mas_raro



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Peggy Carter, F/M, Family Bonding, Gen, Godmother Peggy Carter, Howard Stark's C+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Made-up 80s technology, Pepper likes engineering, Stark Family, Tony is confused but trying, at least he tries idk, before Tony knew how to talk to girls, peggy is the godmother Tony deserves, pepper and tony met when they were teenagers, some questionabe dating advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 05:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11396205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosas_mas_raro/pseuds/cosas_mas_raro
Summary: Tony has really been looking forward to taking his classmate Pepper out on their first date. But he is crushed when his Dad makes him stay home for dinner with a business partner. Who could be that important? And will she have any good advice for Tony about girls? One-shot





	Dinner with Peggy and a Date with Pepper

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is my first fanfic, I originally posted it on Wattpad a few years ago. I hope you guys enjoy! Comments and constructive feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

Tony had plans that night. He wanted to go on a date. True, he was only fourteen and not really old enough to take a girl anywhere, but the girl he liked was in his advanced engineering class at his high school and Tony had been thinking of walking with her to a new museum in the city, a science exhibit with interactive chemistry experiments. He had asked her two days ago, and to his immense relief, the girl had said yes. Her name was Pepper Potts and Tony thought she was the smartest and prettiest girl on the whole planet. 

But then his dad, the esteemed, genius Howard Stark, had dropped the news that he was needed for dinner at home. Howard had a business meeting (Again, Tony thought morosely,) and apparently since his Dad's business partner was unable to plan anything at the office, she was coming over to discuss plans over an evening meal. Sadly, he had to cancel his date, but she had been forgiving, even though a little disappointed. Tony had told Pepper another time and she said she would hold him to that promise. 

Tony didn't understand why his Dad couldn't separate his job and home life, but that wasn't any of his business. Neither were the plans for an arc reactor in his Dad's lab, but that was so damn interesting. Plans of SHEILD were not Tony's business, so why would his Dad even want him to be there for the dinner?

So that was why when he trudged down the stairs, he was so shocked when he saw his Godmother, Peggy. 

"Aunt Peg!" Tony exclaimed. " I didn't know Father's business partner meant you. It's so good to see you again." His trudge turned to an excited walk as he ran over to meet her. Peggy hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek. As they pulled away he rubbed the side of his face to remove the red lipstick, but he smiled all the same. 

"So your Dad didn't tell you I was coming?" Peggy asked Tony as he led her to the dining room. 

"I wanted to surprise him," Howard Stark said, appearing at the top of the stairs that lead down to his lab, a rag with him as he removed the oil from his hands.

"Oh," Tony said a little surprised, and then cleared his throat so his voice wouldn't crack as he continued on. "Thank you Father." 

His dad merely smiled tightly at him and went over to hug and kiss Peggy on the cheek. "How you doin' Peggs? Life as the commander of S.H.E.I.L.D. treating you well?" Arm in arm, they went to dining room, and Tony hesitated before following them, disappointed that the evening was already about work.

*****

Maria Stark made one excellent lasagna, and even though it was one of his favorite foods, Tony was still distracted. He thought of Pepper's hair and how he could never quite determine if it was blond or red, and how the top of her nose wrinkled whenever she laughed at one of his jokes, and the way she got that little line between her eyebrows whenever she was thinking hard, and how she-

"Tony, I'm not that boring anymore, am I?" Tony looked up, a little surprised to see his godmother across the large dining table, smirking at him slightly.

"What? Oh - er, no - I uh, was just thinking... Sorry." Tony said embarrassed. His dad raised an eyebrow at him, his mother smiled warmly, and Peggy had her bright red lips pursed; it looked like she was really trying not to laugh.

"So what are you thinking about that's so important that you have been distracted nearly all through dinner?" Peggy smirked at him. 

"Nothing, it's just- I had a date." The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop him, and even though he rarely blushed, his cheeks turned bright red. His Aunt Peggy smiled at him, curiosity in her eyes, eager to ask questions about who he liked.

"So who is it and how did you meet?" She said with her eyebrows raised. 

Tony, seeing no way out of the question, just told the truth. "Her name is Pepper and she sits next to me in my advanced engineering class." 

"Ooh, so she's a smarty pants!" Aunt Peggy was just barely holding in a laugh, Tony could tell, but he was already so embarrassed, it couldn't really get any worse.

"Yeah, uh- she's brilliant." He said fondly.

"So who's smarter, you or her?" His dad asked him. Tony froze up for half a second at that, fearing his dad wouldn't like the answer. Why did he have to ask that? His mom glared at Howard disapprovingly but with some fondness and Aunt Peggy scolded him with a "Howard, really..."

"No, it's okay." Tony said, surprising himself. Normally he was terrible at talking to his dad, but for some reason, sharing this with him felt right. "Both of us have over a hundred percent in the engineering class and the teacher often talks to us about theories and inventions of our own." Tony paused here, because the next part was what he was worried about telling his father. "But whenever Pepper talks to me about that stuff, I get confused and seem to forget everything I've ever learned."

His parents and godmother laughed at that and Tony said a little defensively, "What?"

"Son," his dad said to him- Tony couldn't help but feel warm inside that his dad had called him son- "You've got it bad!" 

"What do you mean?" Tony was confused. Was his dad implying that he was doing bad in his engineering class for forgetting stuff? Hadn't he just explained that both he and Pepper were excelling in that class?

"It means that your father thinks that you are very badly in love." His mom explained to him. Tony barely stopped a squeak at that- he was only a kid! "And I have to say I agree with him."

"Well, but I'm- uh," Tony said flustered.

"Wait, so did you cancel a date because of me?" Peggy asked, now more concerned with this than laughing at him being in love- as if!

"Well, yeah. Dad said that tonight's dinner was going to be important, so I had to."

"Crikey O'Riley, Tony! Never cancel a date with a girl." Peggy scolded him.

"I had to, dad said I had to be here." Tony said defending himself.

Peggy's glare turned to Howard now, and he responded weakly with, "What? I didn't know he had a date."

"I don't get it. Both of us were disappointed about not being able to get together, but she seemed okay with it, she wasn't angry."

"Never cancel a date with a girl, Tony." Peggy informed him. "It makes them feel unwanted." 

Tony felt horrible then; he knew how it felt to be unwanted - he had grown up with his dad never being around, after all - and he felt so guilty for making Pepper feel that way.

"But it's to late now. What am I supposed to do?" 

Peggy checked her watch and said, "It's not even seven o'clock yet, Tony, I'm sure you could still go out and do something. That is, if it's all right with your mother and father?"

After an "Of course" and "Fine by me" from his mom and dad, Tony quickly pulled his watch off his wrist and started typing a message into it using its small keys that were hidden below it's hinged face. 'Parents said I could do something with you tonight! Do you still want to go out?'

"What's that?" Tony's dad asked him.

"It's a long range message transmitter that Pepper and I invented that can be hidden inside a watch," Tony responded distractedly, nervously awaiting Pepper's response. 'I'd love to! Where?'

"That's a very good invention." Peggy told him. "The agents at S.H.E.I.L.D. could use something like that. Don't you think, Howard?"

'How about the book store, and maybe we could get a coffee after?' Hopefully Pepper didn't think that that sounded like a lame date, but the museum was now closed. 

"It's alright, but I think I'd be able to invent something better for the agents if they needed it." Tony ignored his dad's downing comments- he was used to them. 'I would love that, but let's change it to a hot chocolate!'

'Sure, Jarvis and I will pick you up at 7, and tell your parents you'll be back at 9:30?' Pepper said that she would see him then, and Tony could barely contain his excitement.

"I've got a date in 15 minutes. What do I wear, what to I do, what am I supposed to say, should I have gotten her a gift or something? Ugh.." he moaned to himself. He got up to start getting ready before Peggy stopped him.

"Wear something nice, but not anything overly formal." At Tony's blank face on that, she continued with, "Just ask Jarvis what looks the nicest. As for what to do, treat her with respect and be polite, but be sure to make her laugh. Just talk about anything you have in common, but don't make something up that makes you seem impressive. And instead of gifts, just pay for whatever you happen to be doing rather than her using her own money."

Tony memorized what his godmother had said and hoped that he didn't let Pepper down. 

*****

Tony was in a daze as he walked upstairs to his room. The date had been amazing, wonderful, the very best time he had ever had with Pepper. He reminisced, thinking about how she had gotten hot chocolate on her upper lip while getting drinks, and how cute she was when she was embarrassed, and how Pepper hadn't minded one bit when he used his thumb to wipe the chocolaty foam off of her mouth. Tony thought of when they found the books on mechanical engineering, and how excited Pepper got when she found the plans on a engine for-

Uhff! Tony didn't remember a wall being there. He lost his balance, stumbling backwards, but someone caught him by his shoulders before he could fall down. What he had ran into hadn't been a wall at all, but his dad. 

"Are you alright?" the older man asked, chuckling slightly at his son's confused face. 

"Uh, yeah, um.. Sorry, sir. Goodnight." Tony was about to scurry off to his room so he could continue dreaming about Pepper, but then his dad called out to him.

"Hang on, how did it go?" Tony was confused by his dad's question, but then realized his father was asking about the date.

"Oh, well.. It was good. She was, uh, very pretty, and we had a good time. Yeah, it was fun." Tony wasn't sure what to say about his date, because the euphoric feeling he had was unexplainable.

"Did you kiss her?" This question surprised Tony more than any of the others that night, and he called out "Dad!" in an embarrassed manner. Howard raised an eyebrow to show he still wanted to know what had happened.

"What? I want to know about your love life, is that a problem?" 

Oddly touched by the unnerving but well meaning statement, Tony shared a bit more about his night.

"No, I didn't kiss her," Tony said. But then, before Howard could give him a sympathetic look, he said, "she kissed me!"

His dad laughed a little and held Tony's shoulder in a proud, fatherly manner.

"I still don't even know how it happened! It was when Jarvis was dropping her off, and I knew it was polite to walk her to the door, so I did, and when we were on the porch, she just pulled me forward and kissed me! But then she didn't saw anything after that, she just ran inside."

A horrifying thought came to Tony; what if she hadn't said anything because he was a bad kisser? 

Almost as if his dad could see the nervousness on his face, Howard tightened his grip on his shoulder and asked "Did she smile after?"

Tony of course knew the answer to that, because he always got happy when he made Pepper smile. He nodded to his dad to confirm it.

"Then you have nothing to worry about. I'm glad you had a good time, son. I-I'm proud of you."

His father saying that was the only thing that could have made his day better, and now it was perfect. Tony smiled up at his dad in a way he had never before. 

"Thanks, dad. Goodnight."

In a moment of either extreme bravery or supreme stupidity, he hugged his father. And to his immense shock, his dad hugged him back. His dad's strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and back. 

"Goodnight, my boy," Howard whispered into his son's dark hair. Tony smiled once again at his dad, and pulled away. He went off to his room for some sleep, and Howard, confused at the new relationship he had with his son, went down to his workshop to figure it out while working on a new project. But that didn't mean he wasn't happy with their new bond.

*****  
As Tony crawled into bed and pulled up his covers, he had a great number of things on his mind. 

For one, he was thinking about Pepper. He mentally took back what he had said at dinner; he was completely and utterly in love with her, which should have scared him, but it didn't. If anything, he was excited beyond belief to be with her.

Secondly, he thought about the kiss, and how wonderful it made him feel. Pepper's kiss made him feel unstoppable. He had doubted his kissing skills before, but his dad had appeased them.

His dad. His dad had said My Boy. That had made his night unbeatable. It made it perfect. Tony's last thought as he fell asleep was "I'm proud to be your boy, Dad."


End file.
